1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for collecting/transporting a medical capsule and an endoscopic apparatus for the method, in particular, a method for holding a medical capsule in lower gastrointestinal tract such as small intestine or colon to collect or transport it and an endoscopic apparatus for the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as endoscopes for medical use, various types of capsule endoscopes containing miniature cameras have been developed. Because such capsule endoscopes are wireless, patient discomfort can be decreased compared to the case with an endoscope in which an inserting section of the endoscope is also inserted in his/her body cavity.
A medical capsule such as a capsule endoscope is generally expected to be naturally extruded out of a body cavity, but there is a need to collect the medical capsule at a predetermined position in a body cavity. Also, a medical capsule often gets stuck at a narrow portion of a body cavity, which requires a procedure to find the medical capsule to hold it in order to collect it or to bring it beyond the narrow portion. Moreover, in recent years, there has been a need to transport a medical capsule to a predetermined position in body cavity so that an observation can be started from the position. In these various applications, it is necessary to hold a medical capsule in a body cavity.
Then, various endoscopic apparatuses having a function to hold a medical capsule in a body cavity have been developed. For example, an endoscopic apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-194976 has an inserting section with a distal end formed with a suction opening to suck and hold a medical capsule therein.
The endoscopic apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-194976, however, attracts and holds a medical capsule having an outer diameter of usually on the order of 10 mm in a suction opening thereof having a small inner diameter of 2 to 4 mm, which means the endoscopic apparatus does not have a enough power to hold a capsule, and the medical capsule can be fallen.
The endoscopic apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-194976 has another problem that even if a held medical capsule is fallen, the falling is not recognizable because the endoscopic apparatus holds the capsule at a position which is unlikely to be within a range for observation and it is difficult to check the capsule visually, and the fallen medical capsule has to be located again.
In addition, as the endoscopic apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-194976 is generally in the form of string of scope, it cannot easily reach the inside of lower gastrointestinal tract such as small intestine to collect or transport a medical capsule.
The present invention is made in view of the above problems, and one object of the present invention is to provide a method for collecting/transporting a medical capsule which reliably holds a medical capsule in body cavity to collect or transport, and an endoscopic apparatus for the method.